But it does provide a chance to step back and view the sports stars fleeing Colorado as something other than commodities, which is, let’s be honest, the way most of us view them most of the time.

If it’s all business, which is the usual refuge of parties to these messy divorces, then Carmelo Anthony and other larger-than-life athletes are no more than aggregations of points and rebounds, or possibly catches and touchdowns, as the case may be.

And so we tell ourselves, with the bitterness of lovers scorned, that these guys were never worthy of our devotion in the first place. Anthony may score a lot, but he doesn’t rebound enough. Brandon Marshall may catch a lot of passes, but he doesn’t score enough. Not only that, they must be deeply selfish to want out of Colorado.

These rationalizations soften the sense of loss. In both of these cases, the loss may actually be more about management of the teams they played for than the players themselves, but we don’t want to go there. These are our teams, for better or worse.

So let’s leave the breathless Melo updates just long enough to consider these guys as people. We’ll get back to the commodities market soon enough, probably this week, if Thursday’s NBA trade deadline has anything to say about it.

Let’s look through the eyes of a father, in this case a Broomfield man named George Middlemist, whose day job is associate vice president of administration and finance at Metropolitan State College of Denver.

“I will miss Carmelo very much if, and more likely when, he leaves Denver,” Middlemist wrote to me recently. “Not because of his basketball skills, but for what he has meant to our community.

“I had the pleasure of working an event that the Nuggets and Metro State Roadrunners put on a few years ago. They held a camp for the children from Fort Carson whose parents were deployed. It culminated in a ‘championship’ game between two of the kids’ teams.

“The original coaches were trainers from the Nuggets, but at the last second the two trainers were ‘fired’ and replaced by Carmelo and Allen Iverson. The kids lit up. Carmelo and A.I. were engaged throughout the game with the kids. I am sure the kids continue to cherish this memory.”

Marshall as a decent human being is an even harder sell here after his public battle with a former Broncos administration forced his trade to Miami, so Middlemist’s story on this front may surprise you.

“I also had the pleasure of meeting Brandon Marshall at a Broncos event,” he said. “My son wanted to have his birthday at the Broncos’ Fan Fest, so we spent two days waiting in lines and getting pictures and autographs.

“On the first day, our last adventure was an incredibly long line to get pictures with Brandon. We must have waited in the line for an hour in the sun. As it got to be our turn, a Bronco official went up to Brandon to tell him he could go, his time was up.

“The line was still incredibly long, even though the Broncos had stopped letting people join. Brandon waved the official off, pointing to the long line of kids and not wanting to disappoint them.

“We got our picture, but as we were walking away, I could hear Brandon arguing with the Bronco official, refusing to leave. The official told him they had only contracted with the photographer for one hour and that he needed to leave.

“Brandon flatly stated that the people in line seemed to have cameras, so they could still take their picture with him. And he stayed there, making sure that every kid in that line got to meet him and get a picture.

“I think when these situations happen, like we have with Carmelo, we as fans tend to focus on what we think is selfishness on the part of the player. They do make a lot of money, but in so many ways they also give back to our communities tenfold.

“The Nuggets and Broncos have seen better days, and worse days. The pendulum has a way of swinging both ways. Better days are ahead, and ultimately so are worse days. What I think we will miss most after Carmelo is gone is not what he brings to the Nuggets, but what he brings to Denver.”

Is there room for a little humanity in the human commodities market? If so, maybe Melo’s long goodbye gives us enough time to let the vitriol go.

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